(8 Dec 2020) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4300649
Ram Soni is one of the few remaining masters of Sanjhi, or the Indian art of paper-cutting, to create nature-inspired motifs.
It is not only the means of putting food on the table, it is a carefully preserved skill passed on through generations in his family.
Using special scissors given to him by his parents, who taught him the craft at an early age, he patiently carves out intricate pieces from folded paper to create complex stencils that come alive when superimposed on contrasting colored papers.
But India's prolonged coronavirus lockdown that saw the economy shrink by 24% in the second quarter, and it hampered Soni's sales and his income dropped drastically.
He had to lay off all of his workers, and was unsure if he could continue his artistic trade.
Around the time Soni was running out of ideas, a New Delhi-based designer and architect couple launched a campaign to give artisans a platform to collaborate, display and sell their traditional arts and crafts on an online portal.
Direct Create is a startup launched in 2015 by designer Sheela Lunkad and her architect husband Rajeev Lunkad. Its aim is to bring down exorbitant prices for traditional Indian handicrafts by bridging the artisan directly with buyers and cutting out middlemen and swanky retailers.
Sanjay Chitara, a painter from the state of Gujarat, is an expert of 'Mata Ni Pachedi,' or block and hand painted pieces of cloth, usually depicting stories of Hindu gods and goddesses.
He said the platform has helped him restart his work during the pandemic.
The Lunkads say that for a majority of India's traditional artisans who live in remote parts of the country, physical markets and exhibitions were the only means of communicating with entrepreneurs and buyers. During the pandemic, such avenues stopped existing.
"Because of Direct Create, we have been able to give them a whole lot of marketing outreach and discoverability," Sheela said.
The platform has grown to include over 2,500 artisans from across the country who are collaborating, creating and selling on the Direct Create platform.
Sheela said prolonged limits on trips to markets and malls and a shift towards online purchasing has also made people more curious about the products they are buying, who is making those products and whether they are made sustainably.
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